Man the flushing sucks (or doesn’t?) though. I’m all for wanting to save the earth, and I’m all for limiting water usage. However, I don’t think you’re saving much water when the flushing is so weak that it takes 4-5 flushes to make sure the bowl is clean. Maybe it was just the stall I used (some poor sap in the handicapped stall was not having a good morning…and I wasn’t up for either waiting for him or using the toilet when he was done). Since I never test more than one toilet (come on, how silly would that be?), I have to base my review on what I do use.

If you haven’t guessed yet, I feel kinda bad about having to give this bathroom a low review, but the reality is I probably wasted about 10 gallons of water (give or take a couple) on a system that was either clogged (which might explain the cloudiness of the water coming up after the flush…really reminded me of precipiates in college chemistry courses—as a side note, you wouldn’t believe how long it took me to find that word lol) or just weak. Either way, it was a real pain to have to flush the toilet that many times. On top of that, the soap was watery (I guess you gotta make up for the cost of the extra water usage somehow).

On the up note, Brookfields really does keep the restroom clean, didn’t see any grafiti (pretty impressive considering the surrounding area) and it’s of average appearance. Normally they’d get a 3-roll rating, but the number of times I had to flush that stupid toilet costs ‘em half a roll. If that poor guy in the only other stall in there was more miserable, and/or funnier, I might have credited back that half-roll. Sorry pal, been there and done that, but potty humor is my thing (probably pretty obvious, since I run this site and all…).

Rating:

Wow…

…just…wow…and I mean that in the absolute best of ways.

Now…this isn’t some crazy kitschy bathroom (though it would be a lot more fun if more were…but I think I beat that dead horse to it’s seventh or eighth death last post).

However…it is a gas station bathroom…and usually that phrase “gas station bathroom” evicts terrible horrible thoughts, thoughts that the toilet might eat you (or at least everything living on it) and the fear that washing your hands might be worse for you than not.

This is the nicest cleanest gas station bathroom I’ve ever been in. Ever. If you’ve ever gone with me on a roadtrip, you know I use gas station bathrooms almost more than professional truck drivers/travellers/college students on road trips. Probably more than some of them do. Yeah, I’m that guy. Seriously, these guys should be on the list of bathrooms gas stations should aspire to have.

Now, you’re probably thinking “Big deal…they’re in Lincoln, CA of all places…how busy could they be?) Well…I’ll answer that for you. With 12 pumps (no, not quite as big as the superstations on Interstates and freeways, but bigger than a lot of gas stations I’ve seen in major cities), they’re almost always packed. They stock the counter with two employees throughout most of the day—and still have a line. They’re right off Highway 65, which is a connector freeway between CA70 and I-80. Nonetheless, they manage to keep the restrooms clean. Much cleaner than many of the smaller and similar sized gas stations I’ve seen do. I was literally shocked walking in…I’ve been to the station before but never had to use the restroom, so I never noticed (gotta buy gas, silly!).

So this is my first-ever four-roll review. You might be asking yourself “Why would a plain gas station bathroom get the first 4-roll review? That’s just silly…” Fair question, I suppose…and of course I’m going to answer it. Like I said earlier…this should be what other gas stations aspire to. In any public place, you have to work hard to keep the restrooms looking nice, even harder at gas stations and fast food places because you tend to invite a greater range of people, including those who care less about what they do behind closed (and locked) doors. The nearly complete lack of grafiti (there were some words scratched on the mirror) and the overall cleanliness of the bathroom means the hard-working people at Chevron at Twelve Bridges Lincoln deserve four rolls.

Rating:

As far as Chinese food in the area goes, this place is hard to beat. The owners are great people, really cool, and make sure everyone that comes in is taken care of. The food is always good, well-prepared and delicious.

Oops, for a moment there I forgot I was supposed to be reviewing the bathroom and not the restaurant lol. I really need to sleep more.  Oh well, there weren’t any funny or crazy or cool bathroom stories, and I need to write more than just “average bathroom” so… “As far as Chinese food in the area goes, this place is hard to beat. The owners are great people, really cool, and make sure everyone that comes in is taken care of. The food is always good, well-prepared and delicious.”

One thing I sure do wish though, is that restaurants paid more attention to the bathroom. Not in the sense of keeping them clean, that’s obviously important…or should be…and most restaurants do at least a decent job of keeping bathrooms appearing clean…who knows whether they really are. I for one am not gonna do a viral/bacterial test in every (ha! or any) bathroom I go into. I do like wild and wacky stuff, sure, but it doesn’t have to be about that…it can be little things that really make a bathroom (or any room, for that matter) into something a little more special. Try carrying the restaurant “theme” throughout the bathroom…if it’s a French restaurant, give the bathroom French accents (doesn’t have to be kitschy, just start treating the bathroom as part of the whole picture…and not just an afterthought: “oh yeaaah…we should really make sure we have a restroom in here…”).

Onto the bathroom review…average bathroom. Standard bathroom, one stall, one urinal, one sink. Well…a little bit of a crazy story…the first thing you see when you walk in is a giant mirror. Since I can’t legally show my face here (for reasons I’m not allowed to share—or maybe just because it’s funnier to only see my feet—I’m not sure which), I had to take a bit of an angled photo. Literally the first thing you see is that mirror lol…so picture it, I think I got the one edge of it in the first pic. You know what? I want to see a completely mirrored bathroom (maybe not the floor if it’s a public bathroom—even in a house that would be dangerous if you got out of the shower onto mirrored glass). Someone does that and they’ll get 7 stars from me (well, assuming the bathroom is kept clean…which would be a nightmare…but hey, if you’re mirroring a bathroom you already know what ya gotta do about it).

Rating:

I always like comin out here…their filet and their fantastic dinner rolls are always good (which, oddly enough, the dogs enjoyed this morning—the rolls, not the filet—after tearing through the pantry and discovering someone had left last night’s leftovers out on the counter while preparing today’s lunch). Their bar is solid and well-stocked (probably  not gonna find Chopin, but their drinks are good ).

But you’re not here for food reviews, you’re here for bathroom reviews! So, let’s get to the *ahem* meat *ahem* of this review.

Pretty standard as restrooms go, clean and virtually grafiti-free (I say “virtually” because I only used the urinal, and there was no grafiti there…I’m not sure about the stalls). Some guy came in while I was taking care of business and decided to cough up a lung…apparently it was so bad he felt the need to leave paper towels in the sink. I’d have grabbed pics, but a bunch of people came in as I was fixin’ to do that, and again, it’s kinda weird to do bathroom reviews, so…sorry, you miss out. It wasn’t particularly gross or anything, so just picture some white industrial-type paper towels in a sink, and you’ve got it. See? Even better than the real thing!

Rating: